Mr Lubbers was generally seen as the compromise candidate for the UN job

This tactic seemed to work rather well in the Netherlands - he was prime minister there for 12 years, the longest-serving holder of that office in recent history.

I was badly Lubbered in a hotel, in Conakry, the Guinean capital. A rather tired-looking high commissioner - who had just flown in from Europe - floundered a bit to remember all of the actors and issues in west Africa.

But to be fair it was only the very start of his first trip abroad as a UN boss, which also took in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Over the days Mr Lubbers forged a very coherent message - he wanted security for the refugees, access for humanitarian aid, and, ultimately, a return home for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by war.

Personal style

Mr Lubbers was generally seen as the compromise candidate for the UN job - he is a political fixer rather than a radical. And on his west African tour he did seem to seek out compromise rather than confrontation.

I saw a flavour of this style just before he arrived in Liberia.

Mr Lubbers visited refugee camps in the region

"I'm going to have a tough talk with Mr Taylor," he said at first, dropping hints that he would lobby for sanctions against Liberia unless President Charles Taylor played ball.

But on the very eve of the Monrovia leg of the tour, after the Economic Community of West African States had called for a delay in sanctions, UNHCR spin doctors had watered this message down, saying the carrot and stick approach was for others to pursue.

A man from the Netherlands is usually referred to in west Africa not as 'a Dutchman' but as 'a Dutch'.

This particular Dutch is tall, with strong facial features. He is a bit short-sighted and holds briefing papers close to his nose.

For all his Lubbering, the new UN chief can be quite tough

Ruud Lubbers is very at home in a formal suit chatting with presidents, but not so quite so good at spontaneous speeches. The refugees clapped for him politely, of course, but he did not really inspire them.

As a former politician, Ruud Lubbers naturally loves publicity. But to his credit I did not once see him succumb to the temptation to hold up a pretty baby for the TV cameras.

I did however see him spontaneously embrace the mother of a badly handicapped refugee child, and I am pretty sure this was a genuine gesture that he did not know was being filmed.

Getting results?

For all his Lubbering, the new UN chief can be quite tough. I got the sharp end of his style when he was standing with President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone on the steps of the presidential lodge.

Mr Lubbers started off by saying, more or less, that he and Mr Kabbah had agreed on everything.

But I guessed - rightly, I think - that they had not. My question rather upset the diplomatic atmosphere and Mr Lubbers gave me a look to kill.

But again, to be fair, he then articulated very clearly why there was a difference in emphasis between him and the Mr Kabbah.

Family man

Ruud Lubbers started his working life running a family business. He then entered politics in the early 1970s and retired as prime minister in 1994. Since then he has lectured on economics in Holland and the United States.

He is married with three children, and speaks English and French fluently, but with a heavy Dutch accent.

His trip to west Africa was a success insofar as he managed to get most of the political actors in the region to say the right things about refugee security.

In five packed days he got President Taylor to promise his country as a safe haven, Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front to offer humanitarian corridors, and President Lansana Conte of Guinea to give security to aid workers.

All of this is still only words, of course, but it is a start. Maybe Lubbering does work.